Saturday, January 12, 2013

Elvis Meets Rock Royalty

Ed here: Spinner magazine (Huff Post link) published an article about Elvis meeting some rock celebrities over the years. For the article in all its splendor go here: http://www.spinner.com/2013/01/08/elvis-birthday-famous-fans/?ncidAlice CooperWhen Cooper arrived at Presley's Vegas penthouse in the early '70s with Liza Minnelli, Chubby Checker and porn star Linda Lovelace -- all invited by Elvis -- he was frisked by a security team. Despite that, Cooper would wind up with a gun in his hand, pointed at Presley."Elvis took me into the kitchen, opened a drawer, and pulled out a loaded pistol, telling me to put it to his head," Cooper told theLondon Mirror.Fearing what the security guards would do if they saw him pointing a .32-caliber gun at their boss, the famously macabre Cooper said he felt conflicted."A little voice in my left ear was telling me, 'Go on, this is history -- kill him. You'll always be the guy who killed Elvis.'" That's when he encountered Presley's karate training."A fraction of a second later Elvis did a flying kick on the gun and sent it flying, before tripping me and pinning me to the ground by my neck, announcing, 'That's how you stop a man with a gun.'"

The BeatlesAfter many unsuccessful attempts to meet their hero, the Beatles decided when it finally did happen -- on Aug. 27, 1965 -- there'd be no circus. No leaks to the press, no photos and no recordings.The Fab Four, who were touring the U.S. at the time, met Presley at his Bel Air mansion, where he was sitting on a couch, watching TV while playing a bass guitar, according to "The Beatles Anthology.""That was the great thing for me,"Paul McCartneysaid. "That he was into the bass. So there I was, 'Well, let me show you a thing or two, El ...' Suddenly, he was a mate."The Beatles played pool with some of Elvis' friends and eventually met his wife, Priscilla. (John Lennonsaid he and Elvis jammed a bit, according to the other Beatles.)Years later, Presley tried to get the Beatles banished from America, telling President Richard Nixon that the Beatles were un-American drug users."I felt a bit betrayed by that," McCartney said.